The Conversation
Elderly Arab women help pass the time by “opening” my cup – reading the remaining coffee grounds and stains. They seem to enjoy doing it. I do too! Some are very good at it. Their voices become very serious as they utter the mystic news. Sounds play on sounds. Am I attending an improv poetry reading? Despite my skepticism, I find myself entranced as their song opens my heart. The best of these readers are mothers of friends I think because they want to know the people their children have befriended. My cup has been “opened” several times so far. They all have said, “You talk, you joke. You appear happy. But underneath you are troubled, you are not happy.” This makes me feel naked. “You will have two ways offered to you to solve your problem. But you will go a third way between the two.” Does that mean I am doomed? Never satisfying. Never satisfied.
“There will be two, there will be two, there will be two, two, two days, two weeks, two months. Are you expecting anything?” “Ahh, no.” “Did you have a bad dream recently?” “Ahh, no.” “Then you will. You will be frightened, but don’t let it bother you. It’s just a dream.”
This is all done in Arabic, of course. Then they finish, “There’s going to be a nun in your life. You will be happy. It’s a good cup. A very good cup.” (Which I think means, you cannot have another.)
As I said, they pass the time. They add color to the rainbow.
